Question with regards to contract limitations and NFL rules regulations

Blitzen

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I find the whole debate about Dak and his potential contract fairly entertaining. I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a team hurts itself with a ridiculously large contract, if the league has the ability to fine or levy punishment to the guilty team

Let's say the Cowboys offered Dak $100 million per season for his lifetime (quit touching yourselves homers). That would likely cripple the team's ability to field a competitive team for the foreseeable future. Does the league have the power to actually do something in this case to the offending team? Take draft picks away, cancel the contract outright, sell the team to someone else?

Can the league take dereliction of duties of an NFL team to this extent? Just wondering.
 

Flamma

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I'm guessing no. This is subjective. One could say giving a QB 35 mil a year ruins their potential to win championships. You'd have to prove the team management is purposely trying to undermine their own team.
 

Oz-of-Cowboy-Country

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All contracts have to be approved by the NFL. So yes, the NFL can void a contract if they wanted too.

Say the Cowboys offered Shaquan Barkley 45 million a year. The league office would throw that contract out. Because they know the Cowboys are just signing Barkley to cut him at the end of preseason, just to get him away from the Giants. So signing him to an extremely large contract like that will be viewed as cheating to cripple a divisional opponent. And that's why all contracts have to be approved by the NFL. They basically regulate the market value of every position. There is no punishment they just void the contract.
 

xwalker

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All contracts have to be approved by the NFL. So yes, the NFL can void a contract if they wanted too.

Say the Cowboys offered Shaquan Barkley 45 million a year. The league office would throw that contract out. Because they know the Cowboys are just signing Barkley to cut him at the end of preseason, just to get him away from the Giants. So signing him to an extremely large contract like that will be viewed as cheating to cripple a divisional opponent. And that's why all contracts have to be approved by the NFL. They basically regulate the market value of every position. There is no punishment they just void the contract.

The could not cut Barkley in that scenario because all big dollar contracts have guaranteed money.
 

xwalker

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I find the whole debate about Dak and his potential contract fairly entertaining. I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a team hurts itself with a ridiculously large contract, if the league has the ability to fine or levy punishment to the guilty team

Let's say the Cowboys offered Dak $100 million per season for his lifetime (quit touching yourselves homers). That would likely cripple the team's ability to field a competitive team for the foreseeable future. Does the league have the power to actually do something in this case to the offending team? Take draft picks away, cancel the contract outright, sell the team to someone else?

Can the league take dereliction of duties of an NFL team to this extent? Just wondering.

The league has to approve all contracts.

They can't cancel the contract once it's approved. It's a legal contract between the team and player.

Taking draft picks would make the situation worse.

Whatever happens with regards to the cap, the cap money has to be accounted for somewhere. The cap is in place to limit the players as a whole to a set percent of league income.

Some fans/media want 1 player (likely a QB) to be exempt from the cap; however that will never happen because then the players overall would be getting a higher percent of league income.

The league could fine the owner in real dollars that don't count against the cap.

They can make up new rules.
They fined the Cowboys and Skins during the last CBA negotiations and "uncapped" year for violating a rule that did NOT exist.

They could make up a rule to force a team to trade the player. All of the guaranteed money would accelerate to that team making it uncompetitive for 1 year. The new team would get the player at a reduced rate because the previous team paid a big part of the contract (the guaranteed portion).

They could force an owner to sell (see NBA Clippers).

If a team is being sold, it's possible the league could allow the new owner to get some type of cap relief if the team's cap does not allow it to be competitive. Any cap relief in that scenario would have to be accounted for by the other teams.

Example
They could give a new owner 31M in cap relief by taking 32M of that team's cap and distributing it as a 1M charge to each team. The new owner would get the 1M charge but be free of the 32M resulting in 31M of cap relief. The league would likely need approval from the player's association for this type of procedure.
 

Bullflop

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I'm inclined to doubt that the League's Office would deem it fair to interfere w/the responsibilities presently belonging to the GMs of NFL teams.
 

jazzcat22

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Jerry would only consider one player $100 million a year. Johnny Football. But luckily he did not take him and took some OL guy that may be worth it.
:lmao:
 

Oz-of-Cowboy-Country

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The could not cut Barkley in that scenario because all big dollar contracts have guaranteed money.
The Cowboys can stipulate his quarantees only kick in if he's on the roster week one. AKA we owe you nothing if you dont make the team. But the player would have to be stupid enough to sign that contract.
 

ItzKelz

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I find the whole debate about Dak and his potential contract fairly entertaining. I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a team hurts itself with a ridiculously large contract, if the league has the ability to fine or levy punishment to the guilty team

Let's say the Cowboys offered Dak $100 million per season for his lifetime (quit touching yourselves homers). That would likely cripple the team's ability to field a competitive team for the foreseeable future. Does the league have the power to actually do something in this case to the offending team? Take draft picks away, cancel the contract outright, sell the team to someone else?

Can the league take dereliction of duties of an NFL team to this extent? Just wondering.
Breaking: Dak signs a 3 year deal for 100 mil a year. In other related news half of Cowboys Nation heads explode after watching the news break on Sports Networks
 

conner01

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I'm inclined to doubt that the League's Office would deem it fair to interfere w/the responsibilities presently belonging to the GMs of NFL teams.
If the contract fits within the cba they approve it
They can’t void a contract for being too much but it has to fit in the cap
 

xwalker

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The Cowboys can stipulate his quarantees only kick in if he's on the roster week one. AKA we owe you nothing if you dont make the team. But the player would have to be stupid enough to sign that contract.

No agent would even present that type of contract offer to their client.

If a top dollar type player somehow magically did sign a contract like that, the team would be on the hook for part or possibly all of it if the player got injured in OTAs or training camp (even working out in the team weight room).

The team might get in trouble with the league if they did manage to sign a player in that manner and then cut them.

For example, rules prohibit teams from Franchising a player and later removing the Franchise Tag without having legitimately tried to sign the player (i.e. franchise, try to trade but can't then remove the tag).

There are other "good faith' type rules in regards to contracts.
 

Oz-of-Cowboy-Country

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No agent would even present that type of contract offer to their client.

If a top dollar type player somehow magically did sign a contract like that, the team would be on the hook for part or possibly all of it if the player got injured in OTAs or training camp (even working out in the team weight room).

The team might get in trouble with the league if they did manage to sign a player in that manner and then cut them.

For example, rules prohibit teams from Franchising a player and later removing the Franchise Tag without having legitimately tried to sign the player (i.e. franchise, try to trade but can't then remove the tag

There are other "good faith' type rules in regards to contracts.
No agent would even present that type of contract offer to their client.
Yeah I know.
When a top free agent signs a multi year market value contract, most if them have a guaranteed roster spot clause in there to avoid being cut and left in no man's land.
 

Bullflop

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If the contract fits within the cba they approve it
They can’t void a contract for being too much but it has to fit in the cap

It seems to me that that's no different than how things are now. How does that change anything? The League and the players union already have the power to restrict the cap as they see fit. Therein lies their ability to keep the contracts under control.
 
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Blitzen

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Breaking: Dak signs a 3 year deal for 100 mil a year. In other related news half of Cowboys Nation heads explode after watching the news break on Sports Networks

While all the homers would salute the move as a solid business decision because the cap is a farce, and the team signs everyone it wants each year.
 

conner01

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It seems to me that that's no different than how things are now. How does that change anything? The League and the players union already have the power to restrict the cap as they see fit. Therein lies their ability to keep the contracts under control.
The cap does control salaries
That’s the whole point
 

Jake

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I find the whole debate about Dak and his potential contract fairly entertaining. I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a team hurts itself with a ridiculously large contract, if the league has the ability to fine or levy punishment to the guilty team

Let's say the Cowboys offered Dak $100 million per season for his lifetime (quit touching yourselves homers). That would likely cripple the team's ability to field a competitive team for the foreseeable future. Does the league have the power to actually do something in this case to the offending team? Take draft picks away, cancel the contract outright, sell the team to someone else?

Can the league take dereliction of duties of an NFL team to this extent? Just wondering.

Looking for Goodell to protect the Cowboys from Jerry? That's a new one. :muttley:
 
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